Posted by Brennan Mulrooney on October 02, 2002 at 19:40:10:
Gerrard Phillips and I spent Tuesday birding Key West. I guess I should first mention that the Slaty-backed Gull is still present at Higgs beach. Because we had 25+ kt SE winds we decided to try a bit of seawatching. The gull wasn't there when we first arrived, but it did fly in from somewhere before we were done with our seawatching. The seawatching only produced one distant dark sulid that was probably a young Brown Booby. It was doing its best pterodroma impression in the high winds. The SBGU was hanging out with a large roosting flock of Laughers, Royal and Sandwich Terns.
Landbirding, though quite blustery, was fairly productive. Indigenous Park had, among other things, Common Snipe, Black Whiskered Vireo, and Magnolia Warbler. Little Hamakka had 5 Chestnut-sided Warbs. The Botanical Gardens had Summer Tanager (adult male), Acadian Fly, 2 Hooded and 1 Wilson's Warblers. Black-throated Blue, W. Palm, Worm-eating, Praire, Parula, Black and White, Ovenbird, N. Waterthrush, Redstart and Common Yellowthroat were all fairly numerous.
That's all for now,
Brennan Mulrooney
Key Largo, FL
frozentoze@hotmail.com